1-800-GAMBLER offers tips on how to play lottery responsibly

1-800-Gambler, a US-based problem gambling helpline has issued useful tips on playing lottery responsibly, especially as the Mega Millions Lottery is up and running.

“I mean everybody dreams, everybody’s sitting around, whether they bought a ticket or not, what would I do with 1.6 billions dollars? Know that you’ll only get half of that,” said Christa Foster, a clinical director with Intuitive Wisdom.

The tips point out to a simple fact: the odds of winning are already low, with taxes, tickets costs and other winners all key factors.

“Your odds of wining this are 1 in almost 300 million so those odds you know for your little two dollar ticket, the odds are very much stacked against you,” said Foster.

Gambling can be fun and while buying a couple tickets in moderation is not a huge problem, setting limits for gambling habits helps to keep control.

“Well what we want folks to be aware of is how to play responsible and then how to look for the warning signs that they’ve slipped into problem gambling. Set limits, set times limits and money limits and when you’ve crossed those limits you may be looking at a problem,” said Foster.

1-800 gambler is a hotline for gamblers to reach out with questions and for help with their addiction. They have set up some guild lines for how to play responsibly including:

1. Treat money as the cost of entertainment
2. Plan ahead
3. Expect to lose
4. Never gamble on credit
5. Create balance
6. Avoid chasing lost money
7. Do not use gambling to cope with emotional problems
8. Learn the warning signs

“The first rule of responsible gambling is to treat the money that you spend as entertainment,” said Foster.

Others include creating balance, planning ahead and expecting to lose.

“If you gambled a lot on this give us a call. And if you haven’t if your like a lot of people and you throw 20, 6 bucks at in well then tomorrow looks just like today,” said Foster.

If you or any more you know needs help with gambling, reach out to1-800 GAMBLER.

Source: 1-800 GAMBLER